More and more households are looking for chemical-free ways to clean around the home, even when it comes to floors. While bleach does a great job at killing bacteria, it can be incredibly damaging to a range of different floorings. Instead, cleaning experts recommend using something that’s safe and effective to use on a range of materials like wooden, tile and laminate flooring - white vinegar.

Those in the know love cleaning with vinegar because it is non-toxic, eco-friendly, and inexpensive—and, of course, it’s effective. Acetic acid gives vinegar its pungent smell and sour taste, as well as its cleaning properties. In fact, acetic acid can be found as an ingredient in some store-bought cleaning solutions. Distilled white vinegar usually has an acidity of around 5%, which gives it the power to cut through dirt, mineral deposits, and hard-water stains. This acidity also gives it some mild disinfectant properties.

According to the cleaning pros at Green Fox, to make the perfect floor cleaning solution that “cleans better than bleach”, you need to mix half a cup of distilled white vinegar with four litres of water. 

Give this a good mix, and you have the perfect mix. You can add around 20 to 30 drops of scented essential oil if you wish to soften the smell, but this is down to personal preference.

They explained: “Vinegar can be used on almost all of your hard-surface floors at home and work, including tiled floors, laminate flooring and even wood, to repel dust and keep floors clean for longer”.

“You can even use it to make your carpets smell better. Distilled white vinegar really is a versatile cleaning product.”

There a four steps for the cleaning process to follow with this vinegar solution. The first is to vacuum the floor thoroughly to remove dirt and dust. 

This is especially important for hardwood floors because any grit or other sharp debris could scratch the surface of the floor as you mop, causing irreversible damage.

The next step is to mop your floor with the vinegar water. If you’re using your mop on hardwood floors, it is essential that you wring your mop out as much as possible. 

A common mistake people make when mopping floors is having too much water on their mops.

The final step is to leave the floor to dry naturally. If you have wrung your mop out correctly so it is only damp when mopping, this drying process should be fairly quick.